Off Season.

I'm a month into my training after taking all of October off. Well not completely off since I ran a couple of times and rode my cross bike once, which consisted of me practicing wheelies for an hour (I still suck at them, it's gonna take a lot more practice). I tried to remember the last time I took 4 weeks off in my career of endurance sports, and after reviewing a couple of old training logs I couldn't find any rest period that lasted more than 3 weeks. So this was a big amount of time for my body to try and recover from all the abuse and work that I have put it through over the last 11 years. The month of inactivity was good for healing some aches, but I don't think my body responded that well too it. One of the reasons I think this, is because I got a terrible sinus infection for a good 2 weeks. I hadn't been sick before that for more than a year, and it's funny that as soon as I stop working out my immune system goes down. Although this could have had a bit too do with a long weekend of tailgating and late nights will visiting my brother at Iowa.

I spent a few weeks in October getting my training schedule set up for the coming months, and this year will definitely be the most organized, thought out, realistic and specific training plan to date in all my years of running and/or cycling. I'm also bringing back an improved weight lifting routine which I got away from last year. I think the hours in the gym now, will benefit me even more than hours on the bike. Of course nothing compares to riding, but it's now in the 30s here in Chicago, so motivation is a bit harder to get outside and ride.

I have spent a great deal of time training for improvement, with running and cycling and anything else that I have set out to accomplish. There are a number of factors that go into improving as an athlete, some you can control and others not so much. Non-controllable factors like natural talent and body development are things that you are just born with. Certain people will be naturally better than others at a given sport at different times in their life's. You can't control them, so you have to just realize them, accept, and go on from there. The factors that you can control though are things like sleep or rest and training volume and specificity. It pays to be organized in endurance sports, mapping out training and being realistic with what one is capable of doing given certain restrictions is a must. You benefit much more from training when you can be consistent and methodical about it rather than spontaneous and erratic. That's not to say training needs to be dull, far from it, but it will pay you back much more come racing season if you can train with a consistent plan, then to just 'wing it'. Plus if you keep good notes you can always come back later and tweak things for the next year. It's much more fun to continue to improve in one's sport rather than plateau or even get worse. Many times improvement can even come from not just training more, or harder, but rather differently.

Photo by Kim

I have done a couple of cross races this fall for fun, and have accepted my fate in the 3s versus last year when I was trying to race the 1/2's and getting killed. I have a much more fun time when I race the 3s anyway, so until I actually focus training for cyclocross, I am not going to set myself up for disappointment. I will be racing the Illinois championships this weekend though to try and improve my 3rd place finish in the 3s from last year. I got the hole shot then, so let's see what I can do this year, with hopefully a lot less snow.

I don't plan on writing as much this winter, because I am trying to stay ontop of everything I have going on balancing a full time job, training, friends, family and even some off the bike off season fun, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I enjoy writing and have lots of stuff going on that sometimes I just want to share.

Some links and future things to come...

• NPR coverage of California Road Rage Case
• VT article on Sharing the Road and Reid's Reaction
• Building a Moped
• Mountain Bike Shocks Rebuild
• My basement training/workshop pictures
• Finding a team
• Some how-to's
  

Also if anyone is interested in a cycling specific lifting program, let me know and I can email you the spreadsheet I created from an old template from my HS assistant cross country coach. It's an excellent tracking tool for recording progress in the gym and it's philosophy comes straight from Friel's Training Bible, with a few minor tweaks.

ABD Fall Fling

After returning from UNIVEST in Philly on Sunday night the 13th, and starting work the following morning at 7am, I thought I was fully ready for the season to be done. I didn't touch my bike for 9 days, nor did I do anything physical at that. It was a bit rough on my system trying to get back into the swing of early mornings and 8 hour days at the office, but after a few days it was fine. The next weekend Kim's sister got married, so that was full of wedding activities. Then my van overheated on Monday and had to be towed back to Arlington Heights. Luckily my dad's old car was still at the house so we had a spare. But on Tuesday its battery died at work, so I had to be driven to the car parts store to get a replacement and install it in the parking lot. By this time I was sick of everything going on and I wanted nothing more than to get outside and ride, or run, or something. I didn't have enough daylight on Wednesday night after the dead battery situation to ride, so I went for a 4 mile jog. It felt good, but everything hurt afterward. I stretched a lot and the next day I got out and rode for an hour. It was again a really good feeling and I knew then there was a looming winter on the horizon and that I didn't want my season to be over just quite yet.

So the real last races of my season took place this past weekend. The fall fling series put on by ABD is a series of 4 races over 2 weekends consisting of a criterium, road race, time trial and circuit race. Saturday was the criterium around a very circular course in a business park. There was only one wide right turn followed by a large sweeping right that took you back to the start finish stretch and again to the right hand turn. My plan was to stay near the front and follow the threatening moves. There were about 5 guys to mark, and I'm pretty sure the entire field had them marked. It was a bit hard by myself since I seemed to be going on the defense quite a few times during the early laps. A hard counter attack from Hartley (Geargrinder) and Freund (ABD) established a gap with one other guy. They stayed out front by 15-25 seconds for the entire race. There was still a lot of action in the peloton to get a chase group formed. One or two times I thought I had gotten into a strong chase that could stay clear of the pack, but it never worked. The break of 3 stayed away for the win, and the field sprint was pathetic on my part. My legs were cramping up a bit and I really couldn't stand for the sprint. That's probably what 9 days off the bike and then racing will do to you.

Sunday was a bit more of my kind of race. A 10 x 6 mile 4 right hand turn square in rural Crete IL with lots of wind. The wind was pretty constant from the south so there was a tailwind on one stretch, head on the other, and cross winds on either side. The first few laps were pretty aggressive to get something formed and I just followed what I though might stay away. There was never the right combination of riders in the breaks and the peloton wasn't letting anything stay clear. Finally I got into a group of 3 with Will Nowak (Alderfer Bergen) and a Bicycle Heaven rider. The peloton pretty much let us go, so we organized quickly and started riding hard. We stayed away for about 3 laps, but I our gap stayed around 30 seconds instead of gradually rising. Will and I were driving the pace pretty hard and the strong wind wasn't making the 3 man break any easier. We finally got caught in the tail wind section by a chase group of 3, but within the next mile the peloton caught all of us. I was hoping that when the chase caught us we would then be able to stay clear with more numbers, but the pack was riding hard to shut us down. Within the next few minutes I was following wheels and again got myself into a break of 5 riders this time. We quickly got a large gap, and I tried working at first but soon realised that my legs were completely toast. I sat on for the next lap, pulling through every so often, which then turned into just sitting on. There were still 2.5 laps to go when I finally had to pull the plug after yo-yoing off the back of the break. I shut down everything to give myself a chance to try and recover enough to hook on to one of the chasing groups. They weren't too far back at this point, so when I got caught, I got passed pretty quickly. I soft pedaled in the last half lap and called it a day. I had worked myself into the ground, and made all the right moves, but my legs just weren't responding. I think in a mid season race it would have been a good hard, but manageable day, but after a long season with a big training gap before the weekend, it was painful.

Although this weekend was exactly what I wanted to do to myself. I wasn't ready for the season to be done, I think my mind was a bit ready, but my body wasn't. After this race weekend my mind and my body are both ready to take a break. The rest of October should be pretty relaxed for me, and I'll start my winter training again come November.

UNIVEST

Friday 9/11, Allentown TTT

The morning of the team time trial, I woke up to a cold, windy and rainy day. It was bringing back memories of the road race from last year. We arrived to the course with enough time to take a lap as a team before it closed down for the rest of the day. By this point I knew the all the turns very well from the laps in the car, on the bike and in my head. I did some visualization the night before which helped a ton. It's amazing how running through each turn in my mind the night before really helped me feel comfortable during the race. We were able to pull together enough trainers for the warm up that everyone had one. I got a decent warm up in, considering the trainer I was on had no resistance. With about 10 minutes to go we rolled to the start and checked in. By this time the rain was holding out, but it was still it the low 60s with wind gusts into the 40s. 3 Minutes to go, we head up to the start line in our pre determined order with some last minute equipment checks. 1 minute and we are ready to rock and roll. When the bell goes off Peter takes a slight lead and the rest of us fall into place behind him. After the first turn we try and get into position as fast as possible. The it takes a bit to get into a rotation, but we finally get organized and are flying down the long straightaway into turn 2. Our practice had gone very well the day before, so our team communication was decent. That, plus we had radios with Bernard in the follow car behind us letting us know to speed up or slow down, depending on our flow. At this point the wind was still a major factor, and the roads were wet, but the rain had died down. We made it through the first lap with only one causality in Alex, but he put in a big pull at the front before the uphill into the start/finish stretch. Our split time was decent, and put us mid-pack of the teams that had already finished. The second lap though we needed to hit it hard. We kept our formation tight, and handled the corners well. Nick fell off the pace midway into the 2nd lap, so we were down to 3 with Peter David and I to finish off the race. I was feeling surprisingly good up until this point, without having to go too much into the red. But as soon as we lost Nick it got exponentially harder, with the final few kilometers going all out to stay as a tight group of 3 to the finish line. The final uphill was a lot harder the second time, but once over it I went to the front for the final time and pulled hard. Then David took over and Peter rode the final stretch into the finish with the long pull across the finish line. I was the third rider, so the clock stopped when I crossed and I was completely drained. The race had gone from manageable almost the entire time, to very difficult the final half lap. Overall i was please with my effort, and our team ended up midpack, with a 15 of 30 team finish.

Saturday 9/12, Souderton RR

It is almost identical weather conditions at the start of this years race as it was last year. Overcast skies with a slight rain. It would end up raining pretty much the entire race, but a lot lighter than last year's monsoon. The race rolled out about 10 minutes late and half way into the "neutral" rollout there was disaster. Our whole team had great position at the front just behind the pace car, but almost all of the second half the riders were taken out from a stupid crash in the middle of the field. The stopped the whole field in the middle of the road and we waited another 10 minutes for the wounded to be taken care of mechanicals to be sorted out. I later found out that the crash even took a few people out of the race with broken bones. When they restarted us there was no neutral start, so it was parked to racing in a matter of seconds. I kept decent position near the front, and was cautious around the rain slicked corners. There was a huge sigh of relieve when I made it past the point I almost died in last year when I wiped out into an open intersection while chasing the peloton after a wheel change. There were a few attacks, but no one was really staying away until Peter got into a group of 2, then 3, that started putting time into the main field. Mike Olhesier eventually would bridge up to this group that would survive until 4 laps into the local circuit. Back in the field I was feeling good, but digging deep to keep my position on the tight and windy backroads of PA. The climbs were killer, with some extremely steep pitches on certain sections. I was glad that I had my 26 gear and it actually worked (unlike green mtn when I couldn't shift into it). While many people were out of the saddle spinning their wheels on the wet pavement, I was able to stay seated for most of the climbing and keep a good cadence. The last 200 meters of the second climb was all out of saddle though, and it seemed like myself and everyone around me was going in slow motion. The local laps finally came, but there were 33 more miles to ride during on the 3 mile 11 lap circuit. Each lap got faster and faster, and when the peloton eventually caught Peter's break the pace got really fast with counter attacks trying to form what would become the winning move. Each lap completed I could feel my legs closer to cramping and just loosing any power left I had in them. The hardest part of the circuit was the feed zone hill with people attacking over the top of it on the false flat section. After crossing the finish line for the 7th time I made my way up the hill for the last time. I dug deep, probably deeper than I ever have before to hold over the top of the hill. When I got to the top I turned around to find a huge gap with no one in sight. I was the last rider in line, and knew my time would be short lived back there. I made another effort to move up past a large group of riders to give myself some cushion. At this point it was hard enough for me to pedal, let along concentrate what I was doing, so when I made a right hand turn that I had done so with ease the previous 6 times, I overshot it big time. I didn't crash, but I forced myself up and over the curb, tried to regain my speed and get back on the street, but by this time the peloton was speeding away from me. I tried to sit in the caravan for a few turns, but my legs had nothing left. I had gone into my reserves one too many times. I soft pedaled the last of bit of lap 8 and the ref pulled me at the line. I couldn't be upset with today because I had out-lasted more than half the field, and improved upon last years DNF by a ton. It is a bit disheartening though because I took myself out of the race with a bad mental mistake. But it does go back to fitness because if I would have still felt OK at this point, I probably wouldn't have been racing in the half blacked-out state that is the "pain cave." Peter and Nick would go on to finish with the remnants of the main field, with David getting taken out by an unfortunate puncture in the local laps.

Sunday 9/13, Doyelstown Crit

Again, the weather mimicked last year's with not a cloud in the sky and high 70s; crazy. Pro crits have not been my strong suit all season long. I can't seem to move anywhere, and end up just racing as pack-fill, suffering the whole time. I have come to the conclusion that this is because I am too nice. I can get to the front of these fast paced races, but once I get there, I immediately start to lose my position, and then try again. Well this is not a good way to conserve energy, but I keep trying nonetheless. And then about 80-90% of the race finished, I finally pop and lose all motivation to continue my charge to the front. So for next season, my one and only goal for all criteriums that I race is to get to the front, stay at the front, and don't let anyone take my spot. That means no tapping the brakes on straightaways and taking corners without giving up position. This will let me keep my energy for the sprint and also keep myself out of danger. So anyway, I made the same mistakes today and raced as pack-fill, getting myself to the front several times before losing my position almost immediately and wasting a ton of matches. I lasted about 80% of the race and then was totally spent and had to drop. Right after the race I had to pack up my bike to be shipped home, and then get to the airport to catch a flight back to Chicago.

UNIVEST pre-race

After the last stage of the Green Mtn stage race I had an awesome dinner in Burlington with Peter, David and his parents, David's girlfriend's family and some other friends of theirs. I stayed at David's girlfriend's parents place that Monday night north of Burlington, before the long drive down to Philly the next morning.

Tuesday morning we packed 2 sedans worth of stuff for the 8 hour drive to Philly for the start of UNIVEST on Friday. We made a quick stop in Jersey on the way to pick up Nick, and rolled into our host house outside of New Town, PA around 8.

The next morning Peter had an interview with a local news channel, so after we got a morning ride in we all met at the FUJI warehouse outside of Philly. FUJI is the JBCA sponsor for bikes, and key in helping out Bernard and Ann and the their team throughout the season, especially during UNIVEST. We got a tour of the facility which consisted of a warehouse and a front office off engineers, sales people and marketing staff. We met a lot of different employees and got to talk about everything cycling from racing, technology and the upcoming Interbike convention in Las Vegas. FUJI was in full swing getting everything prepped to ship out to the convention in time for the week long dirt demo and showroom extravaganza that is Interbike. They had at least 4 or 5 mechanics building up the newest models of racing bikes and TT rigs to be inspected, before they were then disassembled and boxed for shipment. The warehouse consisted of rows upon rows of cardboard boxes filled with inventory to be shipped to retailers across the globe. FUJI actually is under the larger company Advanced Sports that owns SE bikes, Breezer, Kestrel and Fuji, so the building housed all 4 brands with their varying type of 2 wheeled products and accessories. I especially enjoyed seeing the new shimano Di2 gruppo installed on FUJI and Kestrel's latest time trial creations. I had only seen pictures of the new electric shifting, so it was neat to finally be able to see it up close and personal. We had a great lunch with the employees and left with a few freebies.

Afterwards we drove to Allentown to preview the TTT course from the car. It was about an hour drive from the house, and supposed to rain the next day, so at least a few laps in the car was better than showing up on race day with no prior knowledge. The course was situated in a very urban city center, which would either mean good or bad news for the new stage and how it is perceived. Out of the start gate there was a right hand turn to a long downhill over a bridge. Very exposed to the wind yet very fast. At the bottom was a sweeping right hand off camber turn to a short uphill. The course then weaved through some neighborhoods before making another small bridge crossing to another right hand turn and a fast flat section. The last few kilos switch backed steep city blocks before the last right hand turn into the flat finishing straightaway. After 2 laps in the car we called it a day and drove home for dinner and some rest.

On Thursday morning our 5th teammate Alex arrived and we got some pre-race practice in a nearby neighborhood taking corners at speed in a tight formation, focusing on communication at all times. Time trialing is a very delicate balance between raw power teamwork. You could have the fastest and strongest guys on a team, but if there is no communication and formation within the group, you won't get the results. A team can move the fastest when everyone is in sync with a good rotation, taking advantage of optimal drafting at all times. This allows the group, not just any given individual, to use its power effectively to produce the most speed. That night there was a race dinner at a grocery store that was sponsoring the event. Yes the dinner was inside the grocery store, it was a bit weird at first, but there were bunch of tables set up for teams and free access to the buffet bar, so it was cool. After another great dinner we went home and got some rest for the start of the weekend.

Green Mountain Stage Race

The final 2 weeks of my season consisted of traveling to Vermont for the 4 day Green Mountain stage race. I arrived on Thursday afternoon, after a hassle free flight through Philly and into Burlington. I had shipped my bike before my arrival to a local bike shop, since the cost of checking one on a flight now is outrageous. Both Kim and my parents joined me for the weekend, helping me at the feed zones, but also getting to relax a bit themselves in the Vermont countryside. After picking up the bike we drove out to Waitsfield to the house we were renting for the weekend. It was the same place that we rented last year, which is an awesome house right by the first 3 stages. The view from the back window is amazing, complete with grazing cows and the Sugar Bush ski resort in the background. After unpacking, I reconed the TT course and then we got some dinner at a nearby bed and breakfast

Friday, ITT, 7 miles

My goal today was to best my time from last year and ride the course smarter. I had a good idea of what power numbers I wanted to maintain on the 2 mile climb out before the course turned into rolling terrain for the next 4 miles before the final steep kicker to the finish. I got out strong and held a good pace up the climb. The middle section was all about staying as aero as possible and getting myself into a good hard rhythm. The final downhill I stayed tucked as long as possible into the steep hill that followed, trying to carry all my momentum into my sprint over the hill, and into the false flat finish. It was good for 40th place, and the times were all slower this year than last because of a steady headwind on the point to point course.

Saturday, RR 72 miles

It was perfect weather today and a great road race course. The loop was not the same as last year so I didn't have any experience that would help me here. There was a long uphill at the start of each lap, followed by a long downhill and a fairly challenging backside before the flat sprint into the finish. The first time up the climb was neutral, and then the racing began. My plan was to not even test the legs until lap 2, so I kept good position and stayed out of the wind. Lap 2 and 3 I tried to go for some KOM points, but both times I went way too early and got caught half way up the climb. The aggressiveness kept me in good position on the climbs though so I didn't have to chase at all on the downhill. The last lap I was feeling very good, and really focused on moving to the top 20 positions for the sprint. The last 5km was a war zone, with about 4-5 crashes in the final K's. The crazy thing was that I was near the front and all of them were happening near the front. Only 2 really affected me, but the last one closest to the finish line took me out of the game. I thought for sure I was going down as I saw a guy just in front and to the right of me go down hard after a rider in front of him severely overreacted and swerved hard left. I had to touch the brakes a bit which took me out of the top guys. I never got to unleash a sprint which is unfortunate because my legs felt absolutely amazing. I finished 12th, with the top 15 separated by probably less than a second.

Sunday, RR 74 miles. App Gap Mtn Finish

In last year's race this was my best stage finish, and the course was identical this year. Last year an early break went and got caught at the base of the last climb, same with this year. The race started in the parking lot of the Sugar Bush Ski resort, at 8am! Normally I wouldn't mind this, but it gets pretty cold at night in Vermont, so the temps were in the low 50s with a 2mile downhill section to start out the day. It wasn't as bad as I thought since the downhill section was neutral so we were riding the brakes the whole way. 10 miles in there starts to appear some pretty nasty potholes on the road, and without seeing it till the last second I nailed one hard and bottomed out my rear wheel, flatting instantly. I stayed completely calm, shifted into my 39-11, pulled to the side and removed my rear wheel just as the SRAM guy was getting there with a wheel. He made a quick swap and gave me a push. I got back up to speed as the SRAM car pulled in front of me and I drafted back to the rear of the peloton. Finally, success! I have only flatted in a road race 2 times before this, and both times never gotten back to the group. I immediately made my way back to the front, recovered and ate and drank. Although now with the new wheel, my shifting was completely dialed into the new cassette, and every cog worked except my 25! I could ride in the 25 only if I held the lever in and pedaled, which sucked. I wouldn't worry about it until the last climb. The next 50 miles were pretty uneventful. Dave had gotten into the early break, and I got into a small chase group over the first climb. We stayed away until the top and got caught on the downhill. Then Peter bridged up with another rider later in the race. It was a large group up the rode though, too large to work together, and I was pretty certain it would come back together during the last climb. It did, and I was back in contact with the leaders.

Monday, Downtown Burlington Criterium

The final crit went a little bit like last year. I started with good position, couldn't keep it, and then just kinda gave up. The start of this race is a bit crazy, with a true fight to get the best starting position possible. There are guys holding a rope to keep the racers back, and when they let everyone finally approach the line it is a mad dash. I actually got a great spot at the front and spent the first few laps there, until I slowly started moving back. I don't know what it is about this course, but I can't seem to get into a good rhythm during it. The race is extremely hard as well, with a long uphill to through the start finish straight that is an all out effort each lap. The section before that is a fast downhill to big left hand turn, and I can never seem to get the right line out of. But anyway. I finally found myself at the back, and rode till the halfway mark and pulled myself. It would have been almost impossible for me to move back to the front, and I just didn't have it in me today.

So this year went a lot like last year did overall. I had one decent result, followed by a really bad crit. By hey, I'm still having fun and know my time will come!

Downers Grove Criterium National Championships

I am a bit backlogged with my race recaps, so the next several posts are races that capped off the end of my 2009 season, that I never fully finished writing until now. Enjoy!

This was my second year competing in the Downers Grove Criterium National championship weekend. Last year I just competed in the second day, but got caught behind a crash with 4 laps to go. This year I opted to do both days since I have learned my that my body generally responds better on a second day of racing. Here's what happened.

Day 1 - Pro/Am

This was the last race of the day, and the start time was nearing dusk. The race was only 50k long so it was going to be a quick race compared to the majority of crits I had been doing this summer. There were a lot of the pro teams racing, probably for the same reason as I, to get the legs ready for tomorrow which was what really counted. The race started pretty smooth, but my position at the beginning was not very good. I worked my way up and got into a fairly good spot. The race was actually pretty uneventful until the final few laps when the pace ramped up quite a bit and riders started popping off left and right. I think most people were dropping out because they wanted the warm up for tomorrow, but not to go completely into the red zone and save a bit for day #2. Well I didn't really think about this until it started to happen, so I was getting caught behind a lot of riders sitting up. I closed gaps for awhile, but thought it was also best for me not to completely blow myself up. I rolled across the line in the 50s, but gained some great practice riding the course for the real show on the next day.

Day 2 - Elite National Championships

There were T-storms threatening in the distance when the race got underway just after noon. The temperature was hot and humid with a full field ready to go after the title of elite criterium champion. I had great starting position, and rode near the front for the first few laps. There was a huge break that went away in laps 1-2, that actually made me very nervous, but I knew that it was going to be a long day with 50 miles of racing total and lots of people to chase down the break. About 10 laps in i felt the first few drops of rain, and then it was an all out monsoon for almost the rest of the entire race. There were crashes pretty much every lap, sometimes in multiple corners. The killer corners were turns 7 and 8 which were the last 2 left turns before the finishing straight. I focused on staying on the inside of the corners as much as possible to avoid someone on my inside overcooking a turn and sliding into me. The rain made it almost impossible to move up in the field, and it was strung out single file for most of it. With about 15 laps to go the rain started to ease up a bit, and as I made a left hand turn to go up the short hill on the backside of the course, I found that I couldn't down shift. I kept pressing the lever and on the 5th or 6th time I heard a crack and the lever was gone! Luckily I was able to carry most of my momentum up and over the hill. The wheel pit was at the bottom of the next turn and I told the mechanics that I needed a spare bike since my shift lever broke off. They asked my frame size, and quickly measured my seat height and switched my pedals over to the spare rig. I stayed pretty calm, and actually got in some extra water and a bit of stretching while waiting. The crazy thing is that they said it was the second broken SRAM shift lever that day (Possible design problem, or coincidence?) Resting was nice, and even though they had me ready to roll by the next lap, I felt refreshed and ready to tackle the last 14 laps. I got a push from the mechanic, got back into the field and immediately moved as far up as I could. The new bike felt a bit funny, especially since the seat post clamp was a quick release and stuck out a bit, hitting the inside of my thigh with each pedal stroke. The first few laps on the new bike I was cautious in the corners to get used to the tires and pressure, but they were actually the same brand as I run (Michelin Pro-Race), so it was a very quick adjustment to the handling. The final few laps were getting stressful, and I couldn't seem to make big enough moves to be in the hunt for the final sprint. With 2 turns to go there was a big crash, and although I lost momentum, I got through it OK and made the last turn safely into the finish. There was no way I was getting into the top group since I wasn't there early enough before the finish, but I did make it across the line without going down, and in 30th place overall. I was happy with the day given all the craziness, and was pretty exhausted, physically and mentally. It takes a lot more concentration around the corners when it is raining like that with 150+ other guys on the course as well.

I do like the course at Downers, and I'm lucky that the venue takes place there year after year, so close to my house. I'll be aiming for a top 30 placing for next year!

Grayslake and Glencoe

My first race back after the long trip to Oregon was the Grayslake
cycling classic. This was the first and only race I did during the
summer of 2006 as a cat 5 and took 11th place. The following year I
raced as a cat3 and won, so this year I was all for getting a good
result. Well I sucked big time and couldn't even finish on the same
lap of the tiny field of 20 riders.  There are a few things that I
think accounted for my suckiness, but I'll spare you.  This has got to
be one of the worst feelings I have had after a race, and I really did
not even want to think about racing my bike after. But you gotta get
back on the horse, sooo...

the next day I raced the Glencoe criterium. It was a good sized payout
so I was expecting a lot of riders with good competiton.  The field
size was not anywhere near where I thought it would be, but there were
some strong riders present. The thunderstorms let up just before the
race started making for hot humid and wet conditions. I really didn't
know what to expect from myslef today so I just focused on my position
and not making any moves unless I felt good enough to make them (
yesterday I was attacking myslef into the ground). I tried for one of
the first $100 primes solo off the front but got reeled in just before
the last corner. I decided that I probably wasn't going to get any
mula for primes since my acceleration was just not there. I noticed
that everytime I got out of the saddle to sprint my tailbone area hurt
a lot and I could not produce the neccessary snap to bridge quickly or
establish a gap. The rest of the race went without incident and I
made a good effort to position myself in the top 10 before the final
sharp corner. I gave my best sprint which was pretty slow for my
normal finish speed, but i was able to hold on for 10th. I was glad I
raced and got back on track. I'm now sitting by a very nice lake in
northern Wisconsin with Kim and her family enjoying my days with great
rides, fishing, swimming and boating. Just gotta survive all the bears
I keep running into!